I think we can agree that good dressage freestyle tests include three basic elements. It begins with the music, which should be directly related to the choreography. The music needs to set the tone, to fit the horse, to go with the movements, and to express something. Creative and unusual choreography, the second element, means they don`t just do the standard figures and they do them in a more demanding sequence, things like piaffe pirouette, extended canter to a double pirouette, or passage half-pass. Finally, there must be technical virtuosity. That means the horses do more than just execute the required movements-hey perform them with expression and dynamism.
And that brings me to seconding Anne Gribbons` extremely well-expressed point in her column for last week`s Dressage Issue (June 25, p. 68). She advocates splitting up the judging duties for freestyles, with some judging the artistic sheet and others judging the technical, and I thought often about her words while watching the freestyles, and the scores for them, at the Olympic Dressage Selection Trials and the USEF Intermediaire I Championships (p. 8).
Anne, who judged those two competitions, admits that her point is something less than groundbreaking. But previous discussion hasn`t led to much action, and it seems the time to act has come. The Grand Prix freestyle has grown increasingly more important in deciding major championships and in promoting the sport. The FEI World Cup is now 18 years old, and it`s been exactly a decade since the freestyle was first incorporated into the World Championships and the Olympics. But they`re still being judged the same way.
Anne explained how taxing it is for judges to keep track of the 15 required Grand Prix movements (“Wait, change that 6 to a 7, that half-pass was better.”) while trying to evaluate the music, choreography, degree of difficulty, rhythm and harmony. In 10 minutes. Add to that that judges–who have very human tastes–may not initially like the musical selection, but since they`re so busy trying to keep track of things, they never get a chance to get to know the music, to try to understand what the rider is presenting to them. So they give low artistic marks, saying, “No, I didn`t like it. It didn`t work.” Maybe it didn`t, but maybe it did.
Here`s where freestyles run headlong into the mission of promotion, or of developing fan appreciation. Trouble starts when the fans, at a World Cup qualifier or a championship, start to tap their toes and cheer for a stirring test. And then the judges pan it. “It`s fixed. Why should I bother watching?” they ask.
Sometimes these disgruntled fans have overlooked technical flaws–haunches swinging on the tempi changes, poor bend in the half-pass-hat only connoisseurs can see. So why not make it more comprehensible by making the artistic side more influential than it is? Why not–for international shows and championships–have three judges evaluating the artistic side and two evaluating the technical side?
Few of the fans who pay to watch international shows or championships are experts. They`ve come to see beautiful horses do something they expect to look like figure skating, gymnastics or a musical show. So make it a show, make it about artistry, make it about showing how a horse and rider can produce something moving and beautiful. Dressage still has–and always should have-he Grand Prix and the Special (and all the levels leading up to it) to develop and protect the technical side. Now it`s time to let the freestyle be about something more.

John Strassburger